Picking a ColdFusion MVC Framework
I am taking over a lot of the ColdFusion stuff that is lingering at our shop and they are insistent it stay on ColdFusion and that new projects in this area MUST be done in CF - basically this part is non-negotiable. I am not very experienced in CF (haven't touched it since 2003) so most of my development has been in .Net, MVC, C#, Linq-to-SQL in the past 4-5 years.
I was doing some looking around for a MVC framework that I could relate my Asp.Net MVC experience to and hopefully an integrated ORM (I am stuck using CF 8 at least for a while). I have found a few like Model-and-glue, Mach II and Coldbox etc. but I don't really know where to start and wanted to get some opinions on the advantages, disadvantages, etc. of each of them from people who use them.
I know that I will need to do an extensive brushing-up (pretty much re-learning) of CFML, so I don't need to be told that - I am looking into the future here.
Could you please share any information you have on CF MVC Frameworks to help me choose which one will be best for me? Thank you.
Answer
Seeing you are NEW to ColdFusion what I would do is pick ONE FRAMEWORK and stick to it. At first it will be hard you will have problems and you will be tempted to drop the Framework you have chosen but don't do it. After you have mastered one framework then you can learn the others.
- CF Wheels
- ColdBox * * * (Nice Documentation)
- FarCry
- Framework/1 * * (simple LIGHT framework)
- FuseBox
- ModelGlue
- Mach-II
Most of these you can add
- ColdSpring
- Reactor
- Transfer
An introduction to ColdFusion frameworks at Adobe.com
Most important is to remember we all have our opinions but there is NO real proof what is best. You can even NOT use a actual framework and just code carefully in MVC.
The stuff you are currently maintaining
I would pick ColdBox, ModelGlue or Framework/1.
ColdBox provides a little Code Generation and Framework/1 is very light so less to learn.